44 



The Tree-toad, Hyla versicolor LeConte. 



LIFE-HISTORY OF THE TREE-TOAD. 



The tree-toad has httle in common with its smaller relative, the 

 peeper, and has a body twice as long, a warty skin, and no distinctive 

 dorsal oblique cross. The tree-toad has considerable yellow or orange- 

 yellow associated with the hind limbs, both on the posterior surface of 

 the femur and along the side of either groin, where at times the closely 

 applied hind legs conceal it. The peeper we associate with the ground 

 more than its larger congener. The former may at certain seasons be a 

 true tree-frog, yet it is only the tree-toad which we usuallj^ expect to 

 observe or capture in trees, on vertical surfaces, etc. When the tree- 

 toad repairs to the water, the peeper has left or is leaving. Finally, 

 "the color and manner of distribution of its eggs " do not prove the same, 

 as once supposed. 



THE FIRST APPEARANCE. 



This is the seventh Anuran to appear from hibernation, and, like 

 the bullfrog, it has no associate species coming out at the same time. 

 When it awakens, the wood-frog has finished laying, the meadow-frog 

 and the peeper have almost completed ovulation, and the toad and 

 pickerel-frog have already started on their egg-laying period. The 

 tree-toad appears the last of April or the first of May, the period when 

 the largest bird-wave of the spring migration is reached; and, as the 

 wave approaches its crest, the tree-toad enters its noisiest stage. The 

 average first appearance, if it were derived from first voice-records, 

 would be about May 4, but the first individuals (seen before they were 

 heard) were recorded on the following dates: 



An average of our first intimations of their presence (in the springs 

 from 1901 to 1912) gives May 1, and for the period of more careful 

 attention (1906-1912), April 28. Our earliest records are April 16, 1909, 

 ^nd April 19, 1910. 



